The Raiders finally turned on Antonio Brown

After a grievance hearing and a threat to retire and a hunt for a helmet no longer in production, Antonio Brown still isn’t in Raiders camp. Brown has good reason to blame the NFL for this: it was reported last week that the league would let him wear his preferred helmet if he found one that was less than ten years old. He found several, but the NFL subjected them to testing, and they failed. So Brown still isn’t playing, and the Raiders have gone from “we support him” to putting out statements demanding he show up:

Raiders GM Mike Mayock told reporters Sunday that “it’s time for him to be all-in, or all-out.” Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, disputed Mayock’s statement. “I’m not sure that we agree that we’ve exhausted all the options.” But what options are there? Rosenhaus has suggested that Brown will submit more helmets for testing to the NFL.

Pro Football Talk points out that the NFL only subjected the 2014 Schutt Air Advantage helmet to testing after Brown tried to wear it instead of adding it to the banned list a year ago, meaning that if Brown simply started wearing this helmet last season, he would have likely been fine.

Brown has had one of the weirdest offseasons ever, burning his feet in a cryotherapy chamber in France before the helmet saga was even reported. The NFL warned players a year ago that certain outdated helmet models would be banned for the 2019 season; the rule change was believed to cover about 30 players, including Brown. The Raiders received filed a grievance against the NFL for the change, which he lost, and that was believed to be the end of all this until now.

Brown is taking a stance that no other player is, and he did not make good use of the year he had to figure out a new helmet. But the NFL is taking a hard line — one that it moved in the space of a week — over a rule that does nothing to prevent concussions. Don’t let Brown’s petulance and incompetence stop you from seeing that.